One Big Game

11/01/2024

Willow was another dog who wasn’t able to live a normal life outside because of her intense reactions towards dogs and people. They were literally creeping and hiding around the complex in order to avoid anything that breathes and moves. This is us during our second and probably final session. She actually sees a dog going crazy at the window. We give her a super small leash pop and she gives up on the dog and realizes her advantage. Which is playing the game and not reacting like a psycho. 🙂

10/29/2024

I just got this message from Marcos mom. Marco was a full blown psycho when he was outside and would see other dogs or even bikes.

What did we do?

1. We told him “no” followed with a consequence that Marco didn’t enjoy when he made choices we disagreed with.

2. We ditched the 6 foot leash for a retractable leash. No more feeling “stuck” for Marco.

3. We gave positive feedback for choices we agreed with.

Shoutout to Marcos family for reaching out and following through with the training. Now Marco and his humans get to live a more fulfilling life together.

🙂

10/23/2024

Exploring new places, meeting new people and getting some gameplay in 😎

10/22/2024

This is the first result that pops up on google when you type “will punishing my dog make him afraid of me?”

Let’s talk about it.

INITIALLY, the experience of being punished almost always makes the dog wary of what/who punished it. That’s kinda the point. What they aren’t sharing with us that dogs VERY quickly become less wary and “insecure” once they can connect the dots to what is causing them to be punished.

“..it is common for dogs that are punished in this manner to keep reoffending because they have not been shown another way to behave”.

Dogs aren’t reoffenders because they don’t have other options. Dogs are reoffenders because the punishment either isn’t clear to the dog OR the punishment doesn’t fit the “crime”.

What they’re saying to say is that taking your kids Xbox away for getting bad grades didn’t work because you haven’t taught them that they should get good grades. No I’m serious. That’s the logic.

We need to provide outlets, a solid communication system, a proper diet, room to roam, reinforcment for behaviors we prefer and all those good things that help living beings feel good and make good choices. But it’s the proper use of punishment that truly communicates boundaries.

So not only do I disagree with this google result, but I truly believe that punishing dogs properly to create boundaries makes our relationship infinitely better.

10/20/2024

Bear isn’t 100% into the game away from home but we’re working on it.

10/19/2024

10/18/2024

If you enjoyed talking to me about our dogs diets then this is a cool video!

10/17/2024

54lbs of Green Jujus frozen patties. $330 or $8.25 per day. This is roughly 40 days worth of food for Zoey who weighs 50lbs.

We always get a mix of proteins.

I also like to add things like pumpkin, sardines, raw goats milk, mushrooms and green lipid mussels.

10/17/2024

Scam alert. I’ve seen this done with physical items before but never with a service. They’re always in a rush to purchase and never in town to make it happen. Often times they will offer to pay extra.

🖕🏼

10/14/2024

I just had a consult where the lady told me she spent $800 on a handful of sessions with a dog trainer. A giant goal the owner had was to stop the awful dog reactivity outside. I asked her to explain what they did and this is what she was told.

“Use a snuffle mat and avoid dogs”

You might think I’m kidding but this beyond common advice. The ”force free” or “positive only” trainers are frauds when it comes to stopping unwanted behavior. They love to give you the work around and then blame you for not trying hard enough.

10/11/2024

Mac. Is. BACK.

😁

10/10/2024

At any given time throughout the day there’s a 5% chance Bear is in this position

10/07/2024

From foe to friend

09/29/2024

What is there to say? This guy is absolutely adorable.

09/24/2024

My latest house guest, Bear.

Stranger danger and the incessant barking is what we’re focusing on. Once Bear matured and got huge he was mostly kept away from people he didn’t know because of his sketchy behavior. Eventually he bit someone.

This guy was no joke the first couple times we met up. Incessant barking followed with 10+ attempts at biting me (with a muzzle on). By our second meet up me and Bear agreed upon the classic hood rules of “don’t start no s**t won’t be no s**t”. We weren’t friends but he wasn’t trying to bite me and we didn’t need the muzzle anymore. This opened up the door for him to come to my house for a training program.

I’ve had him for just over a week and my current assessment is that he’s not an aggressive dog. Just a dog who can act aggressive in a pretty specific context. Meaning he isn’t a “loose cannon” who bites or goes forward when he’s nervous. He actually prefers to move away from things that make him nervous which is great news.

He’s met 3 brand new people and shared space very nicely with them. Which was nearly impossible when we first met. We’ll be looking to build off those interactions over the next month and help turn this guy into a better citizen.

Can you guess the breed?